#StandWithUkraine

The Ohio Council on Holocaust & Genocide Education condemns Russia’s attack on Ukraine. We stand with all those who oppose this war, and we stand especially with the Ukrainian people. We staunchly affirm the condemnation of President Putin’s misrepresentation and misappropriation of Holocaust history, his false claims that democratic Ukraine needs to be ‘denazified,’ or that Ukrainian authorities are committing ‘genocide’ as a justification for the invasion or Ukraine. This is a bitter pill to swallow for Ukrainians and others who remember the Holodomor; the 1932/1933 state-sanctioned Soviet genocide that killed perhaps six million Ukrainians mostly by starvation.  We are equally concerned that Putin is using tactics borrowed from the Nazis, namely legitimizing the annexation of neighboring countries by questioning their sovereignty.  Such rogue empire building, as recent history has made clear, severely diminishes the prospect of lasting peace in Europe, increases the likelihood of atrocities, and makes the world much less safe.